Mê Thú Cưng - Pet Magazine for Vietnam Số 4 | Issue Four | Page 72
Mê Thú Cưng
Cứu hộ, Chăm sóc và Phúc lợi động vật tại Việt Nam 66 75
Development of the animal welfare movement in
Vietnam - Part 1
By Catherine ‘Cat’ Besch
Với trụ sở đóng tại Hội
An, những nhà sáng lập
của Tổ chức Bảo vệ Động
Vật Việt Nam (VAWO),
Catherine Besch và
Emma Bolton, làm việc
với những bác sĩ thú y
địa phương và với cộng
đồng để hoàn thiện sự
đối xử với động vật thông
qua việc giáo dục bảo vệ
động vật, chương trình
triệt sản/tiêm phòng vắc
xin, giải cứu và nhận nuôi
động vật, và xây dựng
năng lực cho những
nhóm bảo vệ động vật
cũng như bác sĩ thú y địa
phương. VAWO tìm kiếm
những nơi tiêu thụ thịt
chó và nâng nhận thức
bằng ấn phẩm bảo vệ
động vật tại Việt Nam.
As they feel such
passion for both
their new country
and the animals
that inhabit it,
VAWO is prepared
to stick around
for a long time in
order to share their
contagious love of
animals in Vietnam.
70
Many animal lovers in Vietnam, both local and foreign, see animal suffering
here on a daily basis and wish they could do something about it. There are
rescue organizations, animal rights advocates, and animal shelters, and
individuals who rescue animals on their own or foster or volunteer with
organizations in the larger cities, but this may not be enough. As a founder
of Vietnam Animal Welfare Organisation, I receive many emails from people
asking what can be done about all these horrific situations for animals.
Animal rescues and animal rights advocates focus on the individuals animals
that we rescue from often horrible situations but often miss the big picture.
Long term strategy is not on the agenda it seems and progress in the animal
rights movement is often slow and very frustrating.
I see my career in animal welfare differently now. My job as an animal
welfare organization director is to put myself out of business and I believe
this is the strategy that all organizations should work towards. We all need
to be in the business of going out of business. In 40 years, I would like my
organization and others like it to be irrelevant in Vietnam because society
and the legal system will be capable of protecting animals with a culture
that sees animals not as accessories to be used and consumed for human
entertainment, but as living beings with rights that are the duty of mankind
to uphold. I recognize that this is a tall order, and frankly, it may not happen
in my lifetime and the possibility of me ever retiring from this work is just a
dream. But this is a goal I would like to see animal lovers working towards.
Below are steps I have outlined to achieve this goal in Vietnam:
Legal recognition
From what I understand,
becoming a legal non-profit
organization in Vietnam working
with animal welfare is somewhat
difficult, but I have not had many
verifiable specifics on this from
organizations or my staff that I
have had research this. Becoming
a registered nonprofit in a foreign
country seems to be the fastest
route to registration in Vietnam,
regardless of the sector but this
would be quite difficult for the
Vietnamese organizations without
foreign involvement. While my
organizations is still going through
our own lengthy registration
Số 04 | Tháng Bảy & Tám 2014 | petmagazine.vn
process in the US, I’ll admit I am no
expert on the Vietnamese process
and I would like the Vietnamese
organizations to work together
with all legitimate organizations
to help them to understand the
steps needed to achieve official
registrat [ۋ